Most teams track share of voice, which is the percentage of articles that mention your brand compared to competitors. Useful, but incomplete. It tells you where you show up, not how much of the conversation you actually own.
When we analyzed 57 companies, 15% were “Narrative Underdogs,” capturing less than 40% of the mentions in their own coverage. Even when the article is “about” them, competitors often dominate the narrative.
Measures the % of articles that mention your brand vs. competitors.
Blind spot: A single mention counts the same as ten. Presence ≠ prominence.
Measures the % of total mentions within all articles in your competitive set.
Why it matters: It reveals who truly controls the story within each piece of coverage.
Example:
You appear in 60% of articles but only earn 33% of total mentions. You’re visible, but not central. Delve makes this visible by going beyond keyword counts to understand context, frequency, and narrative weight.
Imagine two companies in the same competitive space, both tracked across 100 articles:
| Metric | Company A | Company B |
|---|---|---|
| Articles Mentioned | 60 | 40 |
| Mentions | 300 | 400 |
| Share of Voice | 60% | 40% |
| Share of Mentions | 42.9% | 57.1% |
At first glance, Company A seems to be winning with more coverage. But in reality, Company B shows up less often, but when it does, it commands far more of the conversation—57.1% of all mentions vs. 42.9% for Company A.
Data sourced from Delve–learn more.
Most tools only count appearances. Delve uses AI-powered analysis to read each article the way a comms strategist would:
This shifts PR analysis from coverage logging to narrative intelligence. It’s the difference between knowing you're in the room and knowing you're leading the conversation.
We analyzed 57 companies across multiple market types and found they fall into four distinct categories based on their share of mentions:
| Category | Share of Mentions | % of Companies | Avg Sentiment | What It Means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Narrative Leaders
|
80-100% | 15% | 0.72 (Positive) | Complete narrative control. Competitors rarely intrude. |
|
Narrative Owners
|
60-80% | 35% | 0.68 (Positive) | Strong control with manageable competition. Competitors mentioned but don't dominate. |
|
Narrative Battlers
|
40-60% | 35% | 0.65 (Neutral) | Fighting for control. Competitors get nearly equal mention share. |
|
Narrative Underdogs
|
<40% | 15% | 0.52 (Negative) | Competitors dominate even in "your" articles. |
Key Insight: Companies with higher share of mentions also report stronger sentiment—averaging 0.72 vs. 0.52, a 38% gap.
Data sourced from Delve–learn more.
When we plot article count (x-axis) against share of mentions (y-axis), patterns emerge:
Data sourced from Delve–learn more.
More narrative control = more positive coverage.
Articles mentioning you 8–10 times reliably include your key messages, product details, and quotes. One-mention hits rarely move the market.
Repetition builds memory, and memory builds brand.
Share of voice tells you where you show up.
Share of mentions tells you if you matter once you’re there.
Across 57 companies:
And the companies with the highest share of mentions consistently see stronger sentiment, clearer messaging, and greater narrative authority.
If you’re only tracking share of voice, you’re only seeing half the picture. In today’s media environment, that missing half is often where the real strategy lives.
70% or higher indicates strong narrative control. 50-70% is acceptable but suggests room for improvement. Below 50% means competitors are getting equal or more attention in your own articles—a red flag.
Share of voice measures what percentage of articles mention your company compared to competitors (article-level). Share of mentions measures what percentage of total mentions you capture within those articles (mention-level). [1]
For example: You could appear in 60% of articles in a competitive set (60% share of voice) but only represent 40% of the total mentions across all those articles (40% share of mentions) because competitors are mentioned more frequently when they do appear.
Highly competitive or rapidly emerging markets face the toughest environment (average 48-55% share of mentions), while event-driven coverage and niche markets have the easiest time (95%+ and 69-73% respectively). The more crowded and comparative the market, the harder it is to maintain narrative control.
No. 95-100% share of mentions indicates you're the central focus and competitors are rarely mentioned—the ideal state. This is most common for event-specific coverage, product launches, and companies with strong category leadership.
Yes. Traditional media monitoring tools count article volume and keyword frequency but cannot distinguish between subject mentions and competitor intrusion within the same article. Delve's AI-powered analysis automatically identifies the subject entity and tracks all competitor mentions to calculate true share of mentions.
[1] Delve. Choosing the best sentiment analysis tool for PR success
